r
checked them off on his fingers. "Three of them. Seems to me that's a
lot of {11} folks to consult about a thing that does n't really
concern anybody but you and me!"

II

After the fashion of self-absorbed youth, Oliver had never noticed
Mrs. Lannithorne especially. She had been to him simply a sallow
little figure in the background of Ruth's vivid young life; some one
to be spoken to very politely, but otherwise of no particular moment.

If his marital negotiations did nothing else for him, they were at
least opening his eyes to the significance of the personalities of
older people.

The things Ruth said about her mother had prepared him to find that
lady querulous and difficult, but essentially negligible. Face to face
with Mrs. Lannithorne, he had a very {12} different impression. She
received him in the upstairs sitting-room to which her semi-invalid
habits usually confined her. Wrapped in a white wool shawl and lying
in a long Canton lounging-chair by a sunshiny window, she put out a
chilly hand in greeting, and asked the young man to be seated.

Oliver, scanning her countenance, received an unexpected impression of
dignity. She was thin and nervous, with big dark eyes peering out of a
pale, narrow face; she might be a woman with a grievance, but he
apprehended something beyond mere fretfulness in the discontent of her
expression. There was suffering and thought in her face, and even when
the former is exaggerated and the latter erroneous, these are
impressive things.

"Mrs. Lannithorne, have you any objection to letting Ruth marry me?"

{13}

"Mr. Pickersgill, what are your qualifications for the care of a wife
and family?"

Oliver hesitated. "Why, about what anybody's are, I think," he said,
and was immediately conscious of the feebleness of this response. "I
mean," he added, flushing to the roots of his blond hair, "that my
prospects in life are fair. I am in my father's office, you know. I am
to have a small share in the business next year. I need n't tell you
that the firm is a good one. If you want to know about my
qualifications as a lawyer why, I can refer you to people who can tell
you if they think I am promising."

"Do your family approve of this marriage?"

"I have n't talked to them about it yet."

"Have you ever saved any money {14} of your own earning, or have you
any property in your own name?"

Oliver thought guiltily of his bank account, which ha